1. Affective factors on L2 vocabulary acquisition 1.1 Attitude Since 1970s, researchers' focus has made the transition
from aptitude to attitude, from a matter of intellectual to af-
fective aspects, from learners' ability to their personality. At-
tention to learners' learning attitude is significant. Attitudes
to learning and the perceptions (and beliefs) that determine
them may have a profound influence on learning behavior and
on learning outcomes, since successful learners develop in-
sightful beliefs about language learning processes, their own
abilities and the use of effective learning strategies, which
have a facilitative effect on learning. These learners tend to
develop a more active and autonomous attitude that allows
them to take charge of their learning. On the other hand,
mistaken or uninformed beliefs about language learning may
lead to dependence on less effective strategies, resulting in
indifference toward learning, poor cognitive performance,
classroom anxiety and a negative attitude to autonomy.
1.2 Motivation SLA theory leaves no doubt about the crucial importance
of a further affective variable, motivation, which is actually a
cluster of factors that «energize behavior and give it direc-
tion» (Hilgard, Atkinson & Atkinson, 1979:281). Chomsky
(1988:181) points out the importance of activating learners'
motivation: «The truth of the matter is that about 99 per-
cent of teaching is making the students feel interested in the
material». Motivation involves the learners' reason for at-
tempting to acquire the L2, but precisely what creates moti-
vation is the crux of the matter, without which even «gifted»
individuals cannot accomplish long-term goals, whatever the
curricula and whoever the teacher. Thus the concept of lan-
guage learning motivation has become central to a number of
theories of SLA, and motivation has been widely accepted by
teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing
the rate and success of L2 learning, often compensating for
deficiencies in language aptitude and learning (Tremblay &
Gardner, 1995:505).
In the field of SLA, Gardner & Lambert (1976:199) pi-
oneered work on motivation, proposing an integrative-in-
strumental duality, which became widely accepted aril con-
firmed by a number of studies. Their ten year-long research
program in which they found that success in language attain-
ment was dependent on the learners' affective reactions to-
ward the target linguistic-cultural group (in addition to apti-
tude) gave validity to the study of motivation in SLA though
some investigations did not support the model, either by not
producing a strong integrative factor, or by coming up with
insignificant or contradictory results.
Strength of motivation serves as a powerful predictor of L2
achievement, but may itself by the result of previous learning
experiences. Learners with either integrative or instrumental
motivation, or a mixture of both, will manifest greater effort
and perseverance in learning. Other internal sources of mo-
tivation, such as self-confidence, may be more important
than either type of motivation in some contexts. Motivation
can also take the form of intrinsic interest in specific learning
activities and, as such, may be more easily influenced by
teachers than goal-directed motivation (Ellis, 1999:523).